When we receive no response, Ben and I split up to look for them. I take the first floor while he heads upstairs. Noah calls in to let us know he’s searching the property outside.
But none of us find them. I do use this opportunity to snag my birth control treatments from beneath the mattress in my room. If I don’t take them regularly, they won’t work, and the last thing I need is a pregnancy while our pack’s future is so up in the air.
“Where do you think they could be?” I ask.
“Could be at the office. Out with customers. Maybe taking Bessie or Mabel for a joyride,” Noah says with a shrug that suggests he’s not sure he believes any of that.
“No.” Ben holds his phone up and waves it in front of us. “I just checked our bank account. They booked a flight. Left yesterday.”
Shit. Where could they have gone? Did they leave to put more distance between us? To avoid the confrontation they must know is coming by going off the grid?
I watch as Ben tries to call them both. Noah whips out his phone and tries too.
Nothing. Wherever they are, it seems Archer and Miles may not want to be found. At least not by us.
MILES
Ugh. I really fucked up here.
I’m the nice one, the smooth talker. I’m the one Archer sent to collect Violet, and I’m also the one who sent her away the moment shit started to get real.
Basically I’m the world’s biggest asshole, and I own that.
Even if I do somehow manage to win Violet back, I won’t deserve her. I could spend the rest of my life groveling, doing everything in my power to make it up to her, and still I wouldn’t be worthy of her.
I’m not, but Archer is.
He’s devoted his whole life to protecting me. When my father died, he took on the role of provider for my family even though he was still a kid himself. He’s the one who found a way out of poverty for all of us. He fought to make this pack, and look how easily I broke it.
Me. This is all my fault.
Yes, Ben lied too. About what happened with Bokerah, how he knew her already before she tried to come into our pack.
And Noah also called himself a liar before storming away and leaving us behind. Still don’t know what that was about, but Ben and Noah entered our pack together. It makes sense they would leave it together too.
Violet, though, she didn’t lie.
Not exactly. Hers was a lie of omission.
And the moment I pictured another alpha with his lips on her lips, his hands on her body, and his child in her belly, I lost my shit.
She is ours. Only ours.
It doesn’t even matter that the man she was with was an omega—not an alpha as I’d originally believed.
She still had someone else when she was meant to belong to us.
But the more I think about it all, the more I realize how fucked up it is. Everyone says omegas must be untouched. They must be perfect, well-behaved virgins. But why? How does it change anything?
I fell in love with Violet for who she is now, and her past experience helped shape her into that sweet girl who stole my heart with just that first glance.
Her past is part of her story.
Alphas are allowed to fuck around—encouraged even—which means I’ve been with others too. I’ve never fathered a child as far as I know, but I was more than ready to claim Bokerah because I knew it’s what Archer wanted even though I wasn’t sure I did. I gave her my knot, and I very well could have gotten her pregnant from that despite her not being in heat at the time.
Honestly, I’m really fucking lucky she didn’t fall pregnant with my child. Otherwise we’d still be tied to her despite her crimes. I am lucky.
Violet was not.